Week 3

Demonstration Art

Calligraphy, Sketches, Gyotaku & Demonstration Painting

Calligraphy

This is the kanji word for sakana (fish) for those who want to practice their calligraphy.

Sketches

Here is a relatively simple sketch of a fish for practice. The anatomy lesson comes as a bonus.

Gyotaku

This is a gyotaku I did some years ago with a subject I bought at a fish market. It was fairly simple to do. Does anyone want to try to do their own? Some gyotaku subjects require a lot of practice, ingenuity, patience and skill, but fairly descent results can be achieved by beginners with a small, simple fish like this one. One of my students did one once and submitted it to the San Diego County Fair's Student Showcase. It won a special award.

The video below shows the basic technique for doing a gyotaku.

Demonstration Painting

The challenge with this painting is to render as much of a fish as possible using just one stroke. This is called genpitsu-hō (minimal strokes). It takes practice to get it right. Additional strokes afterward are okay to add details.